William Pettit: We need to talk about Joe

EDITOR'S NOTE: The views and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not of Ottawa News Network.

Few know that the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners has a Code of Ethics.

The code requires a three-quarters vote of the commissioners to even recommend an ethics complaint to a three-person "special committee," which would — theoretically — evaluate the ethics complaint under board rules. There are no sanctions in the Code of Ethics, even if by some miracle, a special committee finds grounds to refer the complaint back to the full board. 

The board had a recent opportunity to at least consider an ethics complaint. The board punted. 

Because, apparently, ethics are hard.  

Last fall, an ethics complaint was filed against Joe Moss, chair of the board in 2023-24, centering around a December 10, 2024, “closed session” where Moss strong-armed, disassembled, misled or, in plain English, lied to the board on several litigation matters. 

For the uninitiated, Moss is the leader of Ottawa Impact, a group — to all appearances — of Trump cultists who deny medical science and embrace chaos, incompetence and loyalty tests. At the Nov. 25 meeting, the ethics complaint was dismissed with a series of sanctimonious and self-satisfied speeches, and in the case of Commissioner Sylvia Rhodea, one of four current OI commissioners, a bonkers speech suggesting OI could have been even more destructive to good governance by slashing spending and initiating COVID-19 investigations while in power. She concluded that Moss had been wrongly maligned. The motion was quickly dismissed 8-1, with Doug Zylstra, the lone Democrat, voting for some small measure of ethical accountability.

Through news reports, court-ordered transcripts and recordings of “closed sessions,” court documents and comments from commissioners, we have a picture of Moss' tenure. 

• Pushed an attempt to “demote,” then illegally fire county Administrative Health Officer Adeline Hambley over her use of science and best medical practices during COVID. She sued to keep her job. She won, and the court ultimately ordered the county to pay Hambley’s attorney’s fees in the amount of $180,000. County legal fees totaled over $180,000.  
• Fired administrator John Shay, and hired John Gibbs, a bombastic, unqualified, incompetent, political ally. Gibbs was fired for incompetence and misconduct a year later. Gibbs sued, resulting in a sweetheart settlement deal for $190,000 for Gibbs.
• Gibbs hired unqualified OI political allies Jordan Epperson and Ben Wetmore to work as his assistants. Epperson alleged to Moss that Gibbs engaged in abusive behavior and inappropriately released his resume to the public, a claim human resources vehemently denied. Moss did not seek the litigation risk evaluation with the attorney hired for that purpose, but strong-armed and misled the board that it was in the county's best interest to pay them to leave. The result was sweetheart severance packages for Epperson and Wetmore in the amounts of $100,000 plus five months of benefits and $175,000, respectively, and a $225,000 settlement for an age discrimination suit filed by the only qualified candidate for assistant administrator.
• Moss apparently used his position to strong-arm and pressure MSU Extension in late 2023 to terminate or relocate then-employee Chris Kleinjans, who was running as a Democrat for a commissioner seat on the board after a recall petition of then-OI Commissioner Lucy Ebel. Kleinjans sued, resulting in a $112,500 mediated settlement in 2026 with the county.
• Various misrepresentations to the commissioners in closed sessions and to the public, as revealed in transcripts of “closed session” meetings made public through legal filings by The Holland Sentinel and local citizen Dan Zimmer (whose legal fees were also paid for by the board).    

All in all, there were seven lawsuits resulting from Moss’ actions as chair, costing the county roughly $1 million. It’s a shocking record of incompetence, political interference, flagrant ethical violations and hubris.   

As a result of the 2024 election, the board now has a majority of “normal” Republicans (six) with four OIs (including Moss) and one Democrat (Zylstra), largely thanks to Democratic voters’ revulsion at the chaos and insanity of OI control and voting for several Republican candidates.

So, it is stunning that the Republican “normals” lacked the courage to even examine the Moss ethics complaint in open session at the Nov. 25 meeting; or send it to the special committee under the code; or direct corporate counsel to determine whether any of Moss’ actions were ultra vires — actions beyond his authority.   

The board’s only action with regard to ethics in the aftermath of the misrule of 2023-24 and the November ethics complaint against Moss was a comical — in its seriousness — motion adding an unserious, aspirational etiquette section 3.4 to its rules. It’s as if Miss Manners were asked to establish a rules section. The new rule is as impotent as the feckless Code of Ethics. It’s also shocking that the Code of Ethics and now new section 3.4 has a three-quarters vote requirement in direct violation of state statute, specifically MCL 46.3(2), which establishes a majority vote rule (with two limited, specific exceptions), and in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling on point.

The new board majority, as of Jan. 1, 2025, could have drafted, revised and passed a new Code of Ethics (the Code of Ethics itself requires bi-annual review and revision, a process ignored by the Moss board in 2024) with true ethical standards and sanctions for violating those standards. Standards for inappropriate behavior exist in state statute that governs counties (against political favoritism, incompetence, misconduct, etc.). Other counties have adopted substantive ethics codes, including Grand Traverse County. But I guess that is hard work ... too hard apparently. As then-chair John Teeples said at the Nov. 25 meeting, it is "time to put the past behind us."

Good god.     

Local government matters and accountability matters. The new commissioners ran largely on a platform of transparency. A record of incompetence, political interference, failure to follow basic legal procedures, strong-arming and misleading fellow commissioners resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money, merits investigation. 

But this is not even substantively discussed, let alone resulting in a motion of censure by the majority. Stunning. The majority Republican “normals” would do well to consider the consequences of their vacillation and moral vacuity.

— William Pettit is a retired Assistant Attorney General, where he served for 23 years. He and his wife recently moved to Grand Haven.

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